If you had to live in a small town or city (<150k), what would you pick?

[Sun Belt]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

I suppose you think high speed rail is a bad idea too?

In most places, yes. We're a huge country with widely dispersed major cities. Our two largest cities are 3,000 miles apart.

-CAHSR was a terrible plan. You'll be dead before you ride the bullet train from L.A. to S.F.

A better alternative would have been to build HSR within SoCal and a second HSR for NorCal for a lower price that actually provide an alternative for folks.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Jonesy55

I already live in a place that fits the criteria, Shrewsbury in the West Midlands region of the UK, population of the urban area around 75,000, it is about one hour from Birmingham by car/train, 90 minutes from Manchester or Liverpool.



We made it onto the annual Times newspaper '100 Best places to live in the UK' list this year.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/b...imes-3qkwjnvrm

a lovely town indeed, and the boyhood home of charles darwin. i stayed in shrewsbury on my bike tour across great britain years ago.

it was notably one of the better preserved towns that we stayed in, lots of those old timber frame tudor structures in the town center (and not fake recreations, but the centuries-old real deal).

small well-preserved european towns like shrewsbury blow anything we have in the US in that size range out of the water.

i mean, is there any 70,000 person US town that looks like this?

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.7086...7i13312!8i6656

[Boisebro]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

i mean, is there any 70,000 person US town that looks like this?

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.7086...7i13312!8i6656

schaumburg?

[Buckeye Native 001]

/\ Minot, ND

[aaron38]

If I could live anywhere, money no object, I'd live on Maui.

If I'm being realistic, I'd go back to the Quad Cities, specifically Moline, IL. Still very close to Chicago, the Mississippi river has great boating (when it's not flooding). There is a great sense of community, a fantastic local bar and music scene. Miles of riverfront bike paths. It's small, getting stuck in "traffic" means 5 extra minutes.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Boisebro

schaumburg?

OMG, you're totally right, i completely forgot.

this is basically the same thing as shrewsbury:

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.0401...thumbfov%3D100

[Boisebro]

I think I'd go with somewhere like Coeur D'alene, Idaho:



I'm cheating a little, though. Coeur D'alene's metro is just under 150k, but it is adjacent to the Spokane metro which is another ~600k.

[jd3189]

Originally Posted by 10023

None of the bolded ones are “small cities or towns”.

I did make a disclaimer that some of these places were are part of larger metros but are still under 150,000 people by themselves. I even picked LA Jolla ultimately since I felt that it operated as it’s own town in SD ( but that’s subject to change of course and I guess I was ultimately wrong to mention it).


But populations for the ones you said weren’t small cities based on the OP ( estimated numbers from Wikipedia, but I assuming they’re close enough to the truth):

Miami Beach: 92,307 (2017)
Newport Beach: 86,688 (2016)
Palm Beach: 8,751 (2017)
Redlands: 71,554 ( 2017)

They are a part of huge metro areas, but they are technically small cities and towns that are surrounded by other towns and cities in the metro.

[Chef]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

i mean, is there any 70,000 person US town that looks like this?

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.7086...7i13312!8i6656

Portsmouth, New Hampshire is probably the closest:

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.0771...7i13312!8i6656

[Omaharocks]

^ Good call on Portsmouth!

Perhaps also places like Charleston, Savannah, which have a high degree of old-school urbanity relative to size.

[Jonesy55]

Originally Posted by Chef

Portsmouth, New Hampshire is probably the closest:

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.0771...7i13312!8i6656

That does look very Georgian-era English , no surprise I guess being in New England! The church is a very American style though, you don't tend to find them like that here.

How big is Annapolis, MD? That also seemed like a cute small town when I visited.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by Chef

Portsmouth, New Hampshire is probably the closest:

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.0771...7i13312!8i6656

I love Portsmouth, used to go at least once a month and know that intersection very well and have eaten at that little outdoor cafe (if you pan to the right, across from the church) several times.

[Jonesy55]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

a lovely town indeed, and the boyhood home of charles darwin. i stayed in shrewsbury on my bike tour across great britain years ago.

it was notably one of the better preserved towns that we stayed in, lots of those old timber frame tudor structures in the town center (and not fake recreations, but the centuries-old real deal).

Glad you liked it! How long ago was it when you visited? We don't get a big number of US tourists here, just a trickle of them, I'd say Shrewsbury is on the B-list of smaller old towns in the UK for tourism, the A-list would be places like York and Bath, Oxford and Cambridge etc that do get very busy with international tourists in the summer months.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by Sun Belt

-CAHSR was a terrible plan. You'll be dead before you ride the bullet train from L.A. to S.F.

A better alternative would have been to build HSR within SoCal and a second HSR for NorCal for a lower price that actually provide an alternative for folks.

Your prediction is probably true but that doesn't make it a bad idea, only one too expensive for politicians with no vision.

As it happens, the state's two major metros--the Bay Area and LA--are the perfect distance apart and air transport between them is highly problematic because of traffic congestion at both ends and near-capacity air terminals that can't be expanded.

[10023]

Regarding high speed rail in the US - people seem to underestimate the ability of infrastructure to influence built form.

You’re not going to turn Houston into a pre-automobile city with a train station, but if California had HSR between San Diego, Orange County, LA, San Jose, SF and Sacramento, then there would soon be large walkable urban districts surrounding each of these stations. Especially in San Jose, if that was the hub where lines to downtown SF and Sacramento via Oakland split. It would be as dense as parts of D.C. in 20 years (I say D.C. because the airport would restrict highrises).

[Steely Dan]

7

Originally Posted by Jonesy55

Glad you liked it! How long ago was it when you visited?

Almost 8 years ago to the day.

We didn't even spend 24 hours there (it was just one stop of 14 on Our 900 mile LEJOG ride), but the town definitely made an impression upon me.

[SIGSEGV]

Banff.

[Pavlov]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Banff.

Good choice. Sadly, it may be easier to move to the Vatican City than to Banff. Canmore (though lacking in charm) is a reasonable alternative if you want to live in the Canadian Rockies.